Some good tips

Asparagus season is with us again and that means going out to pick it. How wonderful! I exclaimed, obviously something I would never do in London. My initial enthusiasm soon evaporated when my fellow asparagus pickers turned up at 6 in the morning, all cheery and expectant. I answered the door bleary-eyed wearing my scruffy pink dressing gown and at first not comprehending who they were or what they wanted of me at this ungodly hour. Then it came back to me asparagus picking. I groaned inwardly. Just be a tick, I assured and walked laboriously upstairs huffing and puffing pulling on the first mismatch of clothes I could find. Half an hour later, I found myself tramping through an Italian wood, hair snagging on obstructive branches, peering into the undergrowth for asparagus tips. Finding a good handful, I trotted back to the group leader, smugly holding out my offering for inspection. He shook his head, ‘No, these are young brambles. We can’t eat these’. Disconcerted, I looked at them closely. ‘Are you sure?’ Me with 30 minutes of experience, he with 30 years…. One look from him satisfied me that indeed, these shoots were not palatable and so I continued my search. The others were doing very well. I did actually find 3 shoots; one of them had been given to me as an example of what to look for. Another, a fellow collector had dropped and I discreetly picked it up. The third, I happened to sit on whilst taking a rest. It was a bit crushed and limp but served with some olive oil and parsly, I reckoned it could be revived. At one point, I got stranded on this ledge and had to be rescued and this was swiftly followed by the announcement that I didn’t have my woolly hat anymore and could we go back and look for it which resulted in another 20 minutes of delay while someone agile scampered down the slope and retrieved it. All in all, an interesting morning. I know my companions felt sorry for me at my relative inability to forage and if called upon, to fend for myself. Much easier to buy asparagus ready packed in those little bundles in the supermarket though if you ask me.